Sustainability Index Evaluation of the Rainwater Harvesting System in Six US Urban Cities

• Main Authors: Daeryong Park, Myoung-Jin Um
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-01-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: analytical method; modified SS STORM; reliability; resilience; sustainability; vulnerability
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/280

This study investigated the sustainability of the rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) by analyzing six urban city sites with different rainfall statistics in the United States. We developed a new RWHS performance model by modifying a spreadsheet-based storage, treatment, and overflow runoff model (SS STORM) and verified its performance by comparing with another analytical RWHS model. The sustainability index (SI) evaluation method was used for a reservoir system and applied to the RWHS, employing modified resilience and vulnerability evaluation methods due to the different characteristics of a reservoir and the RWHS. The performance of modified SS STORM is very similar to that of the analytical method, except in Los Angeles, which is characterized by long inter-event times and low rainfall event depths due to low annual rainfall. The sustainability indices were successfully evaluated depending on both RWHS size and water demand and vary over a wide range as annual rainfall increases. This study proposes a new RWHS performance model and sustainability index evaluation method. Further study should confirm the proposed approach in regions with widely different rainfall characteristics.